Janet's Blog

It was the day after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, returning abortion regulation to each of the 50 states. Emotions remain strong on both sides of the abortion controversy. In fact, I was surprised to find Facebook posts from two of my friends, one a relative, and the other a former co-worker, each basically stating the same thing: "If your beliefs about abortion don't match mine, you are not worthy to be my friend. Unfriend me on Facebook immediately!"      The interesting thing about this is that these two people, who both claim to be Christian, are on opposite sides of the abortion debate. I did not unfriend either one.  When did people stop trying to truly communicate with each other? When did people stop listening to each others' viewpoints without retaliating viciously? When did things shift in our country, to the point that so many people are unwilling to associate with anyone whose beliefs are different from theirs in any way? In a world where...

Do you remember Aesop's story of The City Mouse and the Country Mouse ? You may know that Aesop was a slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece more than 2500 years ago. It's amazing that his tales are still being told, and elaborated upon, so many years later.  In a nutshell, this story is about a country mouse who invites his city cousin to visit him in the country. The country mouse offers simple, country food to his visitor, who turns up his nose at the humble provisions. The city mouse, in turn, invites his poor country cousin to visit him in the city, where the country mouse is amazed at the abundance and variety of food to be found there. However, as the two cousins sit down to eat, their lavish meal is interrupted by a murderous cat. After the country mouse flees to the safety of his own home, the tale ends with a moral, as all of Aesop's fables do: It's better to live happily with little and be content, rather than live with abundance or a lot of someth...